Improvement in bank-check books



H. HfNORRINGTON'. Bank-Check Book No. 203,365. Patented'May 7,1878.

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MPETERS, FHOTO-LITIIOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON. HV 5.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY H. NORRINGTON, 0F wnsr BAYIGITY, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN BANK-CHECK BOOKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 263,365, dated May 7, 1878; application filed February 1, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY H. NORRING- TON, of West Bay City, in the county of Bay and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bank-Check Books; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

Figure l is a face view of a stubless checkbook of my improved design, lying open and showing three checks to a page. Fig. 2 is a similar view of a stubless pocket check-book, h aving one check on a page.

The nature 'of my invention consists in a bank check, draft, or other book of a similar character, composed of a leaf marked or printed to form ablank for keeping a compact continuous record of the No., Date, In whose Favor, and Amount of each check as drawn, together with Amount Deposited and Balance, followed by a number of leaves of blanks for bank-checks, equal in number, or nearly so, to the number of lines upon the leaf for keeping the record; these to be followed again, when desired, by. another leaf marked or printed as before, and followed by another series of blank checks, the whole being then arranged and bound so that the leaf marked or printed for keeping the record shall always be directly opposite a bank-check leaf when the book is open.

The object of my invention is to produce a compact bank-check book without stubs or stub-leaves, that may be conveniently carried in the pocket; a book in which each and all the transactions for which it is used, as well as thecondition of .the bank account, may be in full view when each check is drawn; a book requiring a smaller amount of paper for its production, as well as one leaving a smaller portion of material remaining after the checks are taken out than any other now in use for a similar purpose. V

The employment of the stub, or leaf corresponding to the same, as in ordinary check,

draft, and other books of that class, involves not only the use of an increased quantity of paper and printing over the plan I propose, thus making the books unnecessarily cumbersome and expensive, but it obliges the record of transactions to be made in a form in which the transactions, in detail, of the series to date cannot be consulted at a glance, each transaction being entered on a separate leaf.

About one-third of the paper in a common check-book is devoted to the stubs, and a separate form for the entry of each transaction has to be printed on each stub. To dispense with the stub or leaf opposite each check is therefore a saving in paperttnd printing and a diminution of about one-thirdin the size of the book.

The use of a summary or condensed recordindex is a great saving of time and labor in consulting the individual entries, as well as in ascertaining the state of the bank or other account at any given time.

When the checks, drafts, &c., in a book have all been used, the condensed index of many books can be bound together, and will occupy but an insignificant fraction of the space which the stubs or leaves of each check of the same number of books would fill.

The invention is clearly illustrated in the drawings, in which A marks the index-page, and B- the page on which the checks or other forms are printed. The index-leaves are inserted, at intervals between each series of checks, through the book, regulated by the number of lines on the page. If, for example, the index-page shown in Fig. 1 contain thirty-six lines, it will receive the record of the entries of twelve pages of checks in a book having three checks to a page; and at the end of every twelve pages a new indexleaf would be inserted. The blank forms of checks, with the blank form of index or indexes, are then bound together,as shown in Fig. 1, so that when the book is open for filling in a blank check in its order, this blank and the index-leaf showing the condition of the transactions up to the date of filling the check will be together.

In the pocket check-book shown in Fig. 2, the number of lines of the index corresponds with the number of pages of the book it would record.

A check, draft, or other book of similar character made without stubs or stub-blanks, and consisting of a leaf marked or printed on one side to form a blank for keeping a compact continuous record of the business to which the book relates, followed by a series of leaves of blank checks for use in, connection with it, as shown and described, the whole arranged and bound, as shown and set forth, so that the index or condensed record, when the book is open, shall be opposite the check to be filled,

as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own invention I aflix hereto my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY H. NORRINGTON.

Witnesses:

HENRY FENTON, J OHN O. WENnocK. 

